MYSO News

Hayley Jasinski: Flags, Concerts, and Buffets, Oh My

Day 3

After a full night’s rest for the American Airlines group, we agreed to let the United group sleep in; this meant that we left for Rosario an hour later. Soon after breakfast, we piled in the buses and before anyone could start a headcount, people were leaving the bus with an excuse of “I forgot my (dress shoes, passport, music, etc)!” We ended up leaving Buenos Aires at 10:15 and most of us promptly closed our eyes to catch up on some well-deserved sleep. The journey was four hours long but felt like much less – there wasn’t a whole lot of scenery to admire, as there is mostly farmland and ranches nestled between the two cities.

Lunch was the first time the group was reunited. I was finally able to catch up with my friends from the other two flights and hear their side of the story over countless plates of food. We went to another buffet today, and the variety of dishes was astounding. Since we had left later than scheduled, we only had about half an hour to sightsee before we had to rehearse for the night’s performance. We stopped at the Monumento a la Bandera, a monument that is pictured on the 10 note peso. Our concert master, Julian, chased after a pigeon in the middle of one of our group pictures, but alas, he was unsuccessful in his quest to catch it. The tour guide on our bus also pointed out the Parque Nacional a la Bandera, which is only meters away from where Manuel Belgrano designed the Argentine flag.

After a productive rehearsal, we went to dinner in two shifts because the restaurant attached to the Teatro El Círculo, our performance hall, couldn’t hold us all. Our performance was wildly successful and a spectacular way to kick off our tour. The energy grew towards the end of our set as musicians overcame their tiredness and we were able to perform both of our encores. The audience went wild for Danzon No. 2, Libertango, and Caravan, as to be expected. Cheers of “Bravo!” Could be heard throughout the hall. We received a standing ovation and many smiles from our director, Ms. Deustch.

Since most of us slept on the ride out to Rosario, not a lot of us slept on the ride back to the hotel. We were buzzing from the concert and could not have been happier after a night of our undeniably best performance.